Resilence

Timothy Chester

Early in my career at Texas A and M, I sat in a packed Operations Council meeting during the early days of the dot-com recession. Tom Putnam, who led our central IT organization, stood at the front of the room with a piece of chalk in hand. Over the next hour, he walked us through the financial picture—state funding cuts, declining tuition flows, and how we’d manage the downturn through vacancies and belt-tightening. There was no panic, no spin. Just calm, open, honest leadership.

Timothy Chester

I wasn’t in a leadership role yet—I was still learning—but that meeting left a lasting impression. It was my first glimpse of how external economic forces could ripple through higher education, and how vital steady leadership is in times of uncertainty. Since then, I’ve led through three more major disruptions—the Great Recession, the COVID pandemic, and now a fourth wave shaped by shifting federal policy, enrollment pressures, and growing institutional fragility.

Timothy Chester

In today’s dispatch, we return to that first lesson and reflect on what it takes to lead through moments like this—with clarity, calm, and resilience—when the road ahead is anything but certain.